Secret latch.



l. H. GAETJE.

SECRET LATCH.

APPLlCATlON FILED 0CT.6. 1915.

Patented Feb. 15, 1916.

. L zz/z'lizese' 617 Gm 7 a JOHN H. GAETJE, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

' SECRET LATCH. I

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 15, 1916.

Application filed October 6, 1915. SeriaI No. 54,329.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JOHN H. GAETJE, c1t1-' zen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of.

Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Secret Latches; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to looks or latches,-

its general objects being to provide a latch which may instantly and easily be operated by initiated persons, but which will'baflle operation by others.

More particularly, my invention aims to provide a latch having no knob or key, and one in which the actuating finger-piece is so disposed that it appears to form a portion of a rigid casing; to provide means for normally holding the actuating element in its said position and for enabling the latter to resist pressure in the :directions in which such elements have been actuated in the latches heretofore in use; and to provide a simple and cheap construction for such.

1 secret latches.

- of the cover plate removed. Fig. 2 is a similar.

view showing the working parts of a gate latch in which the guides are made of castings. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a simplified form of latch embodymg my invention and with the cover plate removed. Fig. 4 is a fragmentary perspective v1ew latch of Fig. 1, when the latter is being opened; Fig. 5 is a fragmentary perspective view of a latch embodymgmy' 1nvention and having corrugated lateral faces.

In gate latches as heretofore used on outdoor gates it has been customary to provide the operating member with some element projecting beyond the casing of the latch, where it can readily be detected by the fingers when touching the lock, so that this proj'ecting'portion immediately advises any one where and how to manipulate the latch A for opening the same. In gate latches as used at entrances to office railings, the projecting portions have sometimes been omitted and these latches'have been provided with operating members projecting through perforations '1n the latch casings and operable by pressing the same inwardly of the cas,-'

ings. In this latter case, a slight inward pressure at different points on the casing soon discloses the location of the operating member so that such locks are easily opened even by the uninitiated. To bafile those who are familiar with these older types of latches and hence apt to intrude where they are not wanted, I have constructed a lock which has no parts except the latch tongue protruding from the casing and which cannot be operated by an inwardly directed pressure upon any point of the casing. To accomphsh this purpose I provide a casing I having two lateral portions adjacent to one corner cut away and I mount within this casing an operating member 2 normally presenting surfaces 3 and 4: flush with the faces 5 and 6 from which thesaid portions were cut away. This operating memberiis preferably swiveled on a pivot 7 placed close to ter withthe face 6 of which the said face 4 forms a substantial continuation, and is i normally held in its said position by a spring 8. Suitably connected to the pivoted operating member, as by a pin 9 Working in slot 10, is a latch tongue 11 which protrudes beyond the casing vand which is suitably guided, as by guide tongues 12 and 13 formed integral with side parts of the casing. At its back and front the latch thus described is closed by cover plates corresponding in outline to.

the surfaces of which the faces 3 and 4 form parts, only one of the plates (14) being shown in the drawings. When thus constructed, it will be obvious from Fig. 1 that the latch presents the appearance of a closed rectangular box from which only the tip 25 of the latching member protrudes, there being no other projection whatever. Any attempt to find a projecting element by fingeringthe casing of the latch will be fruitless and, owing to the position of the pivot 7 any inward pressure upon the secretly pivoted member 2 (as indicated by the arrows 15 and 16) will only tend to press this member more tightly into its normal position. Consequently, the uninitiated will be unable to open the lock. However, the latch may readily be opened by pressing a finger against the face 3 and moving this finger downwardly, thereby operating the member ing of sheet metal-strips bent back upon themselves to form guides for the latch tongue 11, these sides and guidesmay all be integral parts of a single casting, as

shown in Fig. 2. So, also, the exposed cornersof the latch may be rounded as in Fig. 1, or sharp as in Fig. 2, and other features of the construction and arrangement may be considerably varied without departing from the spirit of my invention. For example, the latch tongue may be made integral with the operating member and a sp ral spring may be substituted for the flat spring, as in Fig. 3 which shows a simplified form of my latch suitable for use on cupboards and on gates for office railings. Moreover, while I have described the adjacent surfaces 3 and 5 as being flush continuations of each other I do not wish to be limited to latch f constructions embodying flat outer surfaces, since substantially the same mysterious effect might be produced by using corrugated surfaces as shown in Fig. 6.

I claim as my invention:

1. A latch including an angularly sectioned casing having lateral portions adjae cent to one corner cut away, an operating member p1voted 1n said casing and presenting edge portions normally forming flush continuations of the sides from which said lateral portions were cut away, said operat-' ing member being movable about its pivotal J mounting by digital friction against one of the said edge portions, the pivotal mountlng being so'disposed with respect to the last named edge portion that a pressure airless grative'ly connected to said operating mem- -3. A latch including an angularly sec tioned casing havinglateral portions adjacent to one corner cut away, an operating member pivoted in said casing and presenting edge portions normally forming flush continuations of the sides from which said lateral portions were cut away, said operating member being movable about its pivotal mounting by digital friction against one of the said edge portions, and spring means normally maintaining the operating member with the said edge portions in their aforesaid 'positions.

. 4. A latch including a casing of substantially rectangular section having lateral portions adjacent to one corner cut .away, and 1 anoperating member pivoted 1n sald casing at a distance from said corner and presenting edge portions normally forming.

flush continuations of the sides from which said lateral portions were cut away.

- 5. A latch including a casing of substantially rectangular section having. lateral portions adjacent to one corner cut away,

and an operating member pivoted in said casing at a distance from said corner but near one of the sides from which said portionswere cutand presenting edge portions normally forming flush continuations of the sides from which said lateral portions were cut away.

6. In a latch having a substantially rectangular cover plate, a casing member corresponding in outline to said cover plate but leaving an opening extending laterally in both directions from one corner, and an operating member movably mounted within said casing and presenting edge portions projecting through said opening and normally forming'continuations of the sides of the casing member so as to coiiperate with the latter in presenting the appearance of solid casing.

7. A latch including a casing of substantially rectangular section having lateral portions adjacent to one corner cut away, an operating member pivoted in said casing-at a distance from said corner and presenting edge portions normally forming flush continuations of the sides from which said lat-' eral portions were cut away, and a latch portions adjacent to one corner cut away, an

operating member pivoted in said casing at a distance from said corner and presenting edge portions normally forming flush continuations of the sides from which said lateral portions were cut away, said member being movable by digital friction against one of said edge portions in a direction parallel to the surface thereof and toward the said corner: and spring means associated with said casing and member for holding the latter in its said normal'position.

9. A latch including a casing and an operating member pivoted therein, said member presenting an edge portion substantially continuous with, but tangibly indistinguishi as able from adjacent surface portions of the 10 .casing: said member respect to its pivotal being so disposed with mounting as to be im friction against said rection substantially edge portion in a diparallel to the said adjacent surface portions of the casing.

JOHN H. GAETJE. 

